What a Wow! House: Al Capone's Chicago Home for Sale

If these walls could talk ... they wouldn’t say nothin’. They once were Al Capone’s walls, and they don’t rat.

A house on the South Side of Chicago, in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood, that once was home to Capone, Chicago’s most infamous mafia boss, is listed for sale. For $225,000, you can rest your head under the same roof at 7244 Prairie Avenue where Capone moved in during August of 1923. But the real estate agent insists you must prove you’ve got the cash to make the buy before you even set foot into the house.

RE/MAX Signature Homes has the listing: “This was AL CAPONE’S Chicago Home. WOW. There are 3 bedrooms on each floor. 1st floor was rehabbed in 2008 with new kitchen. There is even a jacuzzi tub.” The house, split into two units, has enclosed back porches, a two-car garage, newer windows and a “full basement with lots of different rooms.”

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It was built in 1914 at a cost of $5,000, according to MyAlCaponeMuseum.com.

The funeral for Frank Capone, Al’s brother, was held inside the house in 1924, the year after the Capones moved in. Capone reportedly added bars on the lower-level windows to protect his family during his seven-year reign over Chicago’s Mafia.

Al Capone’s wife owned the home until the mobster’s sister, Mafalda Maritote, took ownership in 1947 when Al died in Florida at the age of 48, eight years after being released from prison. She sold it in 1953.

What does the current owner, a retired Chicago schoolteacher, think of living in Capone’s house?

“It’s too expensive to maintain,” Barbara Hogsette told DNAinfo Chicago. She didn’t know the mobster had lived there until after she bought the place in 1963. “To me, it didn’t matter who had it owned it before. He wasn’t going to be living there.”

» WANT TO KNOW MORE? Read about the house and Barbara Hogsette at DNAinfo Chicago

Note: Article was amended to correct Capone’s age at death.

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